In the UK, there’s been a long-simmering story about a Murdoch-owned tabloid News of the World. A private investigator hired by the tabloid illegally tapped phones (including some politicians) and this investigator is now in jail. But the story gets worse. The Guardian investigated and found that in the case of a 13-year-old missing girl, not only did NotW listen to phone messages, they deleted phone messages to make room for more messages. The family thought the messages were being deleted by the victim Milly Dowler, giving them hope that she would be found.
Then, with the help of its own full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard is now investigating evidence that the paper hacked directly into the voicemail of the missing girl’s own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World was listening and recording their every private word.
But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly’s voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the paper intervened – and deleted the messages that had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it.
The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper’s own intervention. Sally Dowler told the paper: “If Milly walked through the door, I don’t think we’d be able to speak. We’d just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug.”
The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police by confusing the picture when they had few leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence.
In cases of missing children, media attention can be invaluable. It can lead to tips and perhaps find the child (Amber Alerts have found children). This is a good thing. However, it seems like there is a hunger in the news industry for more coverage (just look at the circus surrounding Casey Anthony). This story just makes my blood boil. I didn’t plan on writing about it but it was in my mind all last night. Someone at that newspaper needs to go to jail – whoever deleted those messages and those who OKed it should pay a price. Whenever I read stories like this I wonder whether tabloid culture is a symptom or a cause of a decline in cultural literacy. If the media spent 10% of the energy covering Congress as they did covering Casey Anthony, wouldn’t we be better off? Of course, sadly, I think the business chases the stories that make money. Real life soap operas make money. Politics is boring (unless someone is sending pics of their crotch).